Christian Rôças talks about how the creator economy moves the market and the importance of education in the professionalization process
Christian Rôças is a well-known name in the market. Crocas, as he is called, has worked for Instagram, Facebook and was CEO of Porta dos Fundos. Currently, he is one of the main names when it comes to the creator economy, a topic that is latent in the conversations of companies that make up the creative industry.
Recently, he teamed up with other professionals such as Fernanda Paiva (former global head of cultural branding at Natura); Antonio Abibe (creator of Creators Connect and former CEO of Manual do Mundo); Monique Evelle (co-founder of Inventivos and member of Shark Tank Brasil) and Evandro Fióti (singer, songwriter and CEO of Laboratório Fantasma) to launch the Flint project, a hub dedicated to education in the creator economy.
“Flint is an education and entertainment label that will work in these places to teach that the creator language is a mix between technology, culture, communication and all the possibilities of language resources”, he explained.
For Crocar, it is important that the market understands that the creator economy is the combination of a series of factors and that it directly impacts not only the lives of those who are there, but the economy as a whole with the creation of jobs, for example.
To the propmarkhe talks about his views on the market, the importance of education in the professionalization process and, with Labor Day approaching — celebrated on May 1st — he also gives a warning to companies.
Mercado
The creator economy speaks, acts and shows what it is bringing in economic possibilities, because at the end of the day, when we talk about the creative economy, we are talking about the economic market, when it generates money, jobs, opportunities… This market is the ecosystem entire production team, not just the creator who is in front of the camera. It is that too, but it is also the video producers, the scriptwriters, the editors, the company that sells ring lights, the monetization platform company, the data companies… The size of this market is much larger than the we remember. I believe that as the demand for content consumption on the platform increases, this market will be better distributed, generating jobs and everything else. The BNDES is keeping an eye on this issue because the data estimate is that the market, this year, will reach US$ 250 billion worldwide. Everything that is economically interesting, important and touches the pocket begins to receive special attention, which is what we are experiencing now, which involves professionalization, just as journalism has already done. Some time ago, this was not a profession that existed, but there came a time when the demand for journalists occurred and it was necessary to create a well-honed, organized and certified profession.
Creator language
Nowadays we have two perspectives, which are what Flint brings, which are: that of the creator market becoming professional and bringing the industry together and that of the creator language. This second time, we can draw a parallel with English, for example. Of course, there are people who did not have the opportunity and privileges to learn, but those who did have better professional chances in their careers. This is a fact. When we take this analogy and think that all professionals today who speak this language will also be able to expand their audiences and their careers. Many people ask if the personal trainer, for example, can become an influencer and, if he wants to, that’s fine, but if he doesn’t want to, he can learn the language and apply it to his career to have more clients, increase the value of the service, product licensing, launching a book if you want… He will build his personal brand in such a strong way, that he will be able to have more products around, instead of just selling a class. If the professional content market raises the bar and we can include people in this creator language, everyone wins.
Rise
The pandemic gave a much-needed push to people who didn’t have much choice and had to find a way to make money, whether with their own produced content talking about a topic, a story, a narrative or to sell their products. That initial fear of ‘I won’t look good on camera’ and ‘I don’t know how to do it’ brought us a lot of self-taught people and this greatly expanded the market. Again, we are talking about economics. It was a necessity to generate income and, in this case, the pandemic helped many people learn to speak the creator language or improve what they already knew. Of course, a lot of people started and stopped, which is normal, but there were also many people who saw that it was working and that’s the niche we want to work in.
Apprenticeship
I think everyone is learning a lot. It’s a time when anyone who says they know everything is either a liar or really lost about where they are in the world. I act in a way that I like not knowing. I like to have the feeling that I don’t know about something, I will look for information and, when I do know, I will have enormous knowledge about it so I can talk to others. The advertising, journalism, content production, streaming and audiovisual markets notice that they are together and no longer separated as they once were in the past, when the industries sometimes made friends with each other. Today, we are going through this ‘crash’ and I prefer to look at how we take care of ourselves so as not to think that only that specific market is right. I went through some communication industries that were very different from each other and, many times, I said ‘wait, you are saying the same thing, just in different terms and angles, as well as with a very big ego’. I want the creator economy to give money to people, to move the economy towards more jobs and, therefore, more happiness because that is a factor that makes money and I think it is difficult for anyone not to want that. This discussion needs to go to a place where we should reset the bar to ‘I don’t know’ and start from there. How are we going to combine what I know with what you know to create a new thing?
Multidisciplinary
This year I was at both SXSW and the Web summit and these events touched on a subject that I particularly love, which is multidisciplinarity. Advertising alone no longer solves the brand’s problem, audiovisual alone cannot solve the problem of launching their films, creators alone will not solve their own cases either. It’s a mix of disciplines and we need to enjoy it. Resistance will happen, which is normal, and it is our role as an industry to tell companies to look elsewhere to see how others are doing, including the issue of fees.
Is digital cheaper?
I listened to many industries and realized that people get confused in their statements. For example, there are many people who believe that digital content is cheaper and this bothers me because I don’t think it is cheaper, but that it is a production design structure that has lower costs depending on the content you are going to make for the digital and that doesn’t mean that people’s fees need to be lower. You have to have a professional for each role needed in a production. Here, I’m talking about how to better remunerate these people and how the creator economy, when becoming professional, needs to be careful and have a legal team and a lawyer, for example. We have it in other areas, why don’t we have it in this one? Another point is that the production design that television and streaming have is much more robust and that is obvious. If we test and make mistakes in a production volume that has a hundred people, this test is a millionaire and I’ll be stupid if I do that. Now, if I have the advantage of testing a production design designed for digital, I won’t spend that money, in addition to being able to test and correct the route more fluidly, something that the advertising and audiovisual market should learn. If it works, we move on to another window because there isn’t one better than the other.
Market vision
I like to look at innovation by visiting the past and, if we look back, when radio soap operas went to television, there was a prejudice, something like ‘those who do television are not good actors, they are not from radio’. This will always happen with new generations and new media, but as things become more professional, it helps and our hypothesis like Flint contributes to this process. In the past, people had to learn from each other and, to do so, they relied on casting coaches, managers, agents, makeup artists, lighting… The entire structure of the industry that we know today was set up in the past. Now, we have the opportunity to build one too. The market will mature and we will drink from each other’s water, you know? I think there is a place to think about how to help people speak the language of the creator economy, be it an actress, a screenwriter, a businessman, a lawyer… At the same time, the market needs to be careful and stop doing things like ‘I’m going to hire a creator to be an actress in a series because she has more followers than the other person’, because that conversation will be left behind. It’s important to have an audience, to have a community, but that’s not all. Algorithms are changing and today, content and reputation are the things that count most.
Power of the creator economy
This is an economy that is transversal, it speaks to all industries and can help them grow their financial numbers, their professionalization, employee remuneration, the sophistication of their work and many other things. It is a happiness and can help the country’s economy grow, in addition to changing people’s reality, we just need to look at the number of people on the outskirts who are working, living and earning money from it.
Education as a destination
Flint is an education and entertainment label. It’s multiplatform, right, so we produce content for our own digital channels and create trails and courses about this language and all its needs. People need to learn, but they have to learn with pleasure, in a pleasant way. We’re going to start with some free courses, but people can also go to places with certification, postgraduate degrees, more real professional training. The Flint seal will work in these places to teach that the creator language is a mix between technology, culture, communication and all the possibilities of language resources. I usually say that it is a set of skills and methods, which mixes the technical and the academic. Universities are starting to get into this game too and this is very important because they need the language of entertainment within what they teach and we need the support of academics and theorists. We need each other for the market to improve and happen. Flint was born out of the need for everyone to say creator, not be a creator. If you don’t want to be one, that’s okay, but you need to communicate like one.
Responsibility
May 1st is coming and we are talking about professions, how we move people economically and bring financial possibilities and social and economic movement to various audiences. So, if you are a brand, an agency or a client, think about how you can work on your social responsibility to think about how we can educate and bring more repertoire, sophistication, inclusion and possibilities through one language creator and open more doors for a lot of people who need it. Education is the solution for social and financial movement, in addition to improving the creator economy and creative industry market. This May Day, instead of spending money on a lot of useless actions, invest in education projects because, with that, everyone improves and the market improves.
